Review of Asset: Episode 13

July 23, 2014

Episode 13 starts off in a place I’m not a fan of. Here we have two of my favourite characters, Tom and Katyenka, have been written out. The point of doing this from a story perspective is to make the mission solely depending on Eric. The Canadian-civilian asset has been a good punch line to the Canadian running jokes throughout the series. At this point it’s hard for the audience to trust that Eric, the not-spy in enemy territory, has the skills to survive Lazerev.

With that in mind, Nadja has finally started questioning her husband’s business affairs. Nadja always came off as a static character in comparison to some of the other strong female leads in the show. In this episode the woman goes hunting for information, and it doesn’t surprise me that she knows exactly where to look. Nadja has the opportunity to push the story forward, instead of being manipulated by events, and I eagerly await to watch the outcome. Hopefully the next episode will reveal what exactly Nadja found. This brings up a weakness in the episode, as Dimitri and Anya, Eric and Julia sit around consorting how to take down Lazerev. The episode doesn’t reveal exactly what either of the teams are planning. This tactic of leaving the audience in the dark makes it incredibly hard to build suspense. I’m left needing more detail on what’s going to happen, there’s an allusion to a plan but it’s not enough. Another question that’s left unanswered is the unholy alliance between Anya and Dimitri. The previous episode especially gave the audience the impression that she’s working against Dimitri for the sake of her loyalty to Lazerev. A brief scene says the opposite is at work. Anya obviously knows so much more than she’s letting on, and it’s interesting to see how keeps most of her knowledge to herself. Episode 14 better answer most of these questions to keep the audience on track.